Snowplow



Oct. 22, 1940. J. WANDSCHEER SNOWPLOW Filed Aug. 5. 1937 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 INVENTOR. M

A TTORNEY 2 1940- J. WANDSCHEER 2,219,204

' SNOWPLUW Filed Aug. 5, 1937 1 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 I Z v v I VVENTOR. By

61 ATTORNE Patentedv Oct. 22, 1940 SNOWPLOW Joseph Wandscheer, Sioux Center, Iowa Application August 5,

1 Claim.

-My invention relates to a snowplow for highway use principally.

An object of my invention is to provide a snowplow which instead of including spirally arranged elements which cut transversely across a road bed, include a conveyingmember which bores spirally in the road bed in the direction of travel, and thereby positively drags the snow rearwardly into the mechanism for conveying the snow thus impelled to the sides of the roadway.

A further object of my invention is to provide a fan structure which can be readily reversed for impelling the snow to either side of the plow.

A further object of my invention is to provide a cutting member as aforesaid with its shaft directing longitudinally toward the direction of vide such side and lower cutting shields which will insure cutting action along the lower surface as well as along the side banks.

A further object of my invention is'to provide a structure which will instantly break downthe snow wall as the plow travels forwardly and. dl-- toward the plow arvert the same inwardly rangement.

A further object of my invention-is to provide a structure which will accomplish the above objects with a minimum number of parts and [vention consists in the construction, arrangement and combination of the various parts of my device, whereby the objects contemplated are at tained, as hereinafter more fully set forth, pointed out in my claim, and illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which:

Figure 1 is a transverse section taken through the plow.

Figure 2 is a view taken substantially along the'lines 2-2 of Figure 1. I

Figure 3 is a detail of a portion of the deflecting spout.

Figure 4 is a forward elevation, and Figure 5 is a plan view of the plow.

'I have used the character In to designate'generally a truck or other such means for pushing 1937, Serial No. 157,567 (Cl. 37-43) the plow forwardly. Attached to the vehicle III are the braces II and [2- which are 'attached to the vertical channeled member l3 (see Figures 1 and 5). Received-within the channels I3 are the slidable angle members I4. A cross bar ll 5 (see Figures 1 and 5) is attached transversely between the members l4 andpivotally attached thereto at it is the rod II which is attached to a suitable piston which travels within the hydraulic cylinder I8. Attached to the cylinder I3 is the hose I9 which communicates with the vehicle.

The cylinder I8 is suitably attached to a lower cross bar 20 which is attached between the members l2 and in this manner by forcing oil through the pipe 19 the cylinder will correspondingly permit raising of the plow to any degree necessary. After being set in position the members l3 and I5 can be locked together by suitable bolting arrangements to maintain the plow in fixed ele- 20 vating position. A cylindrical fan housing 2| is carried by the members l4 and attached within thehousing 2| is a. further housing 22. The center shaft 23 is journalled within the bearing at 24 and within further bearings 25.

Attached within the'inner end of the casing 22 is the larger'gear 26 which meshes with a smaller gearlZ'l. The gear 26 is rigidly attached or keyed to the shaft 23 at 28, and the smaller gear 21 is attached to the further shaft 29 at 30 '30.; The shaft is attached to a universal joint 3| whichis attached to the shaft 32 which is attached to the vehicle powering unit. The universal -joint connection permits the power to be 'applied regardless of the height of the plow unit." The shaft 23 continues into a further square shaft portion 33 which as a variation can be a spline shaft if such is desired. The shaft 33 continues to the shaft 34 which is journailed-at 35 and mounted on the shaft 34 at 36 is a sprocket 31. Passing over the sprocket 31 is a chain drive'38 which passes over the further larger sprocket 39 which sprocket 39 is keyed at 40 to the hollow rotating shaft 4|. A further gear 42 which is of the same approximate size 5 as the sprocket 31 is free to slide. along the square portion 33. A further gear 43 is securely attached at 44 to the hollow shaft 4|.

The gear 42 includes projecting teeth 45 which are adapted to mesh with the sprocket 31, and 5o it-will be understood that the sprocket 31 is not keyed to the shaft portion 34. The gear 42 includes an inner extension 46 having the chan neled portion 41 in which is received the fork 43 which is attached to the rod 49 which communi- 5 cates rearwardly through the casing into the exterior connection 66 which allows the fork to be drawn rearwardly, or conversely.

The hollow shaft 4| rotates on the forward bearing 26 and on a rear bearing 6|. Securely attached at 62 to the outer rotatable shaft 4| is the annular member 53 to which the members 64 are attached. Attached to the members 64 are a series of equally spaced vanes or blades 66 of the approximate shape shown in Figure 1. As shown, there are six of such blades although any number can be employed. Attached at 66 toward the forward end of the shaft 23, is a hub member 61. The hub member 61 includes a pair of angularly extending portions 66 to which are attached the spokes 66 and attached to the outer ends of the spokes 66 are the cutting and conveying blades 66.

Attached to the fan housing -2| are the extending side members 6| which gradually diverge therefrom and terminate in the edges 62 which edges are practically flush with the extreme forward edges of the blade 66. The edges 62 extend into the angularly inwardly projecting edges 63 which merge with the bottom 64. The bottom member 64 includes the centrally converging blades 66 which converge to the center as shown more clearly in Figure 5. The bottom 64 slopes upwardly a slight distance and terminates in the casing 2|.

The blades 66 include the forward ends 66 which forward ends extend radially a greater distance than the rear of the blades 61. The rear end of the blades 61 are radially a shorter distance than the forward ends 66 and in effect the effective cutting areas described by the blades 66 follow the tapering convergency of the side walls 6| (see Figure 5). Four of such blades can be used or any other number and it will be particularly noted also that the blades surfaces follow a spirally arranged contour starting from the outer ends thereof.

An upper shield can be provided at .66 and a vertical shield at 66 which shield 66 can include an arcuate opening at 16 to permit inward passage of the snow. A spout for deflecting the snow to either side of the plow is provided at the top of the casing 2|, the sides of which spout are designated by the character 1|. A central shaft 12 is rigidly attached along the surface 13 to the covering flap 14 which is cut away at 15. Rotatably journalled upon the shaft 12 is a further hollow shaft member 16 which is attached along the edge 11 to the further flap 16. The flap 16 is cut away at 16. Attached between the slidable side members 66 on either side of the spout sides 1| are the rods 6|. The sides 66 are of the approximate configuration as shown by the dotted structure in Figure 2, and the solid lines in Figure 4.

The shaft member 16 extends through the inner wall 1| into the portion 62 which is attached to the horizontal rod 63. Pivotally attached to the rod 63 is a further rod 64 which in turn is attached to a further horizontal rod 65 which in turn is attached to the shaft 66 (see Figures 1 and 5). The central shaft 12 extends through the portion 62 and'is attached at 61 to the further horizontal rod 66 which is attached to the vertical rod 66 which in turn is attached to the further horizontal rod 66 which is attached to the further shaft 6|. The shafts 66 and 6| pass to the vehicle. The shafts 66 and 6| are journalled in a suitable bearing member 62 at the termination thereof.

Now that the structure of my device has been explained, I shall proceed to explain the operation thereof,

The plow is forced forwardly by means of the tractor or driving vehicle I6 and during such movement the snow is being cut and conveyed rearwardly by means of the blades 66. In effect the principle involved is that of directly boring into the snow masses so that as the blades 66 enter thereinto, the snow is forced rearwardly through the action of the spiral blades and also through the action effected by the traveling forward of the plow itself. This results in a. highly efficient manner of cutting away the snow since a relatively small resistance is encountered in this way. Since the spiral blades 66 follow the general contour of the side blades 62 all of the snow is'thereby forced rearwardly without escaping into any side passages, etc. The lower inwardly turned fins 63 naturally assist in this action and the two fins thus concentrate the lower masses of the snow toward the blades. These flns also assist in the slicing action against the snow masses. Meanwhile, the lower blades 65 exert a slicing action against the now. It should be especially observed that the extension of the side members 6| to the extreme forward ends of the cutting blades present an important feature since they break away the snow from the sides as rapidly as the blades are cutting against the same. In other words, the feature of simultaneously boring into and rearwardly conveying the snow and breaking away the same along the outer edges thereof is achieved by this construction. The snow thus cut is conveyed into the casing 2|.

The fan blades 55 then blow the snow upwardly through the spout arrangements. It will be observed that the shaft 23 is driven through.the engagement of the gear 26 with the smaller gear 21. In one position of the gearing members the fan will be driven in the same direction through the sprocket drive 36 since such sprocket drive passes over the sprocket 36 and the smaller sprocket 31. This driving arrangement is effected through the arrangement of the gear 42 with the sprocket 31. However, if it is desired to reverse the fan, the rod 46 is pulled inwardly through the connection at 56 which carries the gear 42 along the spline or squared shaft 23 wherein such gear will then mesh with the upper gear 43.

Since the sprocket 31 is rotatably mounted upon the shaft 34, there will then correspondingly be relatively free rotation imparted to the sprocket 41 and the same will ride freely. However, the engagement of the gear 42 with the aforesaid gear 43 will correspondingly result in a reversed motion being imparted to the fan blades due to the natural reversal of gear engagements, which will result in the hollow shaft 4|, which carries such blades, being rotated in the opposite direction. The reason for changing the direction of rotation of the fan is to throw the snow to either side of the machine as desired and through the spout arrangement. One side of the spout can be lowered and the other side raised by this construction which is accomplished through the agency of the shafts 66 and 6|.

For instance, when the shaft 6| is turned, correspondingly the arm 66 will be pivoted which will carry the link 66 downwardly as well as the horizontal rod 66. This operation will pivot the rod 12 which is attached to the flap 14 and correspondingly the flap 14 can be raised or lowered, the lower portion of which is shown in Figure 2 wherein the lower edge of the flap rests against the casing 2|. Similarly through the agency of the shaft 86 the arm will swing the link 94 in either direction vertically which will pivot the arm 99 which in turn through the hollow member II will pivot the flap 19, which flap likewise can be pivoted to the upper limit as shown in the dotted structure in Figure 2 or can be swung downwardly until the lower edge rests against the casing similar to that explained for the flap 14. In this manner the flaps 14 or 18 can be independently pivoted to any height so that the openings left at 92 can be made smaller or larger as desired depending upon the capacity necessary, and also to throw the snow outwardly to correspondingly greater distances.

It will be noted that as 'the flaps l4 and 18 swing upwardly that they will contact the rods 8| and carry such rods upwardly and at the same time carrying the side members 99 in the same direction. This, then, insures that a complete closure results along the sides of the spouts and also insures that when the flaps H and 18 fall to the lowest position, that the members 8|! will not thereby be carried downwardly restricting the action of such flaps. The fan blades 55 can be rotated as previously explained to throw the snow according to such direction of rotation, and according to the opening of thespout members.

For instance, as shown in Figure 2, the blades are rotated in a counter clock-wise direction since the left hand spout is open.

Anotherfeature provided in my invention is that of cutting away the center masses of snow which are forward of the shaft. To effect this result, I extend the shaft 29 into the extended portion 93. Attached at the extreme end of the portion 93 is the small hub 94. Attached to the hub 94 are a pair of blades which are pitched to a fairly substantial angle. The blades 95 extend outwardly a substantial distance and it will be noted that as the shafts 23 and 99 rotate, the

blades 95 will'likewise berotated thereby cutting away the center areas of snow as themachine travels forwardly and in this way an effective cutting surface will be provided radially from the blades throughout the entire diameter thereof, and in this manner comparatively little resistance will be encountered by the machine. A further bearing 96 can be provided to assist in supporting the further end of the shaft, and brackets 91 are attached to the bearing 99 (see Figures 1 and 4) which brackets are attached to the flange 89. It will be understood that other modifications can be made in the plow without departing from the essential principles hereto outlined and it will be understood that the hydraulic lifting arrangement as at it can be positioned above the casing 2| if such is desired so that the plow can be lifted upwardly instead of being forced from the lower end.

It will now be seen that I have provided a snow plow which will bore directly into snow masses, and thereby convey and force material rearwardly in an eflicient manner, that I have provided a fan structure for blowing the rearwardly impelled snow outwardly to either side as desired, that I have provided means for tunneling the snow with side members which tunneling function occurs simultaneously with the aforesaid boring function, that I have provided a snowplow with readily" adjustable spout arrangements which can be constricted or expanded as desired independently of each other, and that I have cutting members, a fan positioned rearwardly thereof, said fan including a plurality of radial flaps, said flaps having inwardly recessed portions, a transmission casing received within said recessed portions, a transmission in said casing for driving said boring member and said fan.

- JOSEPH WANDSCHEER. 

